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Boiled Puddings

A boiled pudding made with raisins, currants, flour, bread crumbs, suet, apples, sugar, candied orange rind, spices, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the raisins, currants, flour, bread crumbs, suet, minced apples, sugar, candied orange rind, nutmeg, mace, and salt.

  2. Add the brandy and eggs, then beat the mixture well.

Boil and serve

  1. Tie the mixture tightly in a thickly floured cloth.

  2. Boil the pudding in water for 3.5 hours.

  3. Serve with German, wine, or punch sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender crumb as it melts during boiling.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help give the pudding its structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and lighten the dense fruit mixture.
Flour
Adds body and helps hold the pudding together while it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tart apples and brandy.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour while contributing a little moisture.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth tightly. A tight, well-floured cloth keeps the pudding compact and stops water from soaking in, so it holds its shape and does not turn soggy during the long boil.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, flour, bread, apple, sugar, orange, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, flour, bread, apple, sugar, orange, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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